11/9–Soller

Back out on the road, we retrace our steps and head back to Soller.  The maps we have show a couple of parking areas, but they aren’t the best in the world and we end up driving around sort of aimlessly looking for them.  We think we find one area, but it seems far from the center of town – at least on the bad map I have.  It is packed full too, so we head off in the direction of “centre” and stumble upon another lot that does have some empty spaces.  We’re still unsure how far it is to the main square, but we figure we’ll take our chances.

After paying for an hour and a half of parking, we start walking down more narrow streets to what we think will be the main square.  Already Soller is shaping up to be much larger than Fornalutx and much more commercial.  The streets are lined with retail shops and cafes, and there is much more traffic and many more people here. The town grew up, getting rich, on oranges, although we’ve not seen so many orange orchards as olive orchards, so it obviously developed far more commercially than Fornalutx. 

Our navigational skills are rewarded as we round a corner and catch sight of the church of Saint Bartholomew towering over the town square. Now that’s magnificent.

The square is quite pretty, surrounded by cafes, with a lovely fountain in the middle and the interesting looking old bank building standing guard.

But, honestly?  We like Fornalutx better – it’s small and sweet and so medieval.  Soller is busier and for us at least, not the prettiest town in Palma.

We spend a few minutes on the square, then decide we’re ready to go back.  As we head to the car, we find a cute little cafe with Almond cake advertised on their chalkboard.  I’m in!  Ed orders a cappuccino and we share the cake.  So good – I’m definitely looking this recipe up when we get home.  An excellent little local dessert to finish off our day.

Back in the car, we head inland again, going through the toll tunnel (4.95 euros now) and avoiding the free road over the mountains that supposedly has 57 hairpin turns. 

We hit the major thoroughfares, get turned around at a round about because Alice told us to turn at the exit for Valldemossa and, as usual,  I didn’t trust her and told Ed to go straight toward Palma.  After a u-turn a few kilometers later, we end up on the road that leads us straight back to the port and our little car rental.  Totally great! So glad we found this little place, since now its an incredibly easy walk right back onto the ship and canapes on our balcony as we prepare for our first 2 days at sea.